good evening from los angeles, i'm tavis smiley. tonight a conversation with myse musician wyclef jean. you know him from the iconic group the fujees. he has contributed to "hips don't lie" and whitney houston's "my love is your love" and carlos santana's big winner, "supernatural." his album is called cat carnival three : the fall and rise of a refugee." we're glad you've joined us for a performance from wyclef jean in a moment. ♪

and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ >> i am pleased to welcome my friend, three-time grammy winner w , wyclef jean. and his latest album, "carnival iii: the fall and rise of a

refugee. " and now the single "borrowed time." ♪ we're on borrowed time we can't waste no time ♪ ♪ these are the days of our life when we will fall just so we can rise ♪ ♪ just so we can rise >> not only is that a great track, but that's a great story behind how that track came to be. tell the story. >> yeah. well, i wanted to say what up to you, man? good to see you for a minute. one of the greatest minds of our generation. >> get out of here. i want to talk about what happened since i last saw you in march. >> yeah. yeah, yeah. >> you're running with the cops. >> yeah, yeah. >> we'll come back to that. the back story here. >> you know, so i get a colin powell -- a call from apple music and nassau. the idea was there was a shuttle called juno, and the shuttle

would go to jupiter, record sounds and bring back to earth. the idea was what happens if a musician starts to put sounds -- as a producer, we're constantly looking for sounds. >> uh-huh. >> i had an idea of a song called "borrowed time" for our generation. i listened to marvin gaye, "what's going on." and i put the sounds in from jupiter. i think this is when we study back in school, this is definitely a mat that will be calculated because i literally had to take frequencies, chop it out, pup t it with the piano. for me it was beyond exciting. the idea of combining space and earth and putting the sounds together. >> to a layman -- this might be an impossible question, but to a layman, how would you describe what the sounds of jupiter sound like? >> you know, what was funny was scott who worked with nasa was

having a conversation with me before he played me some stuff. >> right. >> he was like, look, certain things i'm going to play you, you're going to be like one of the first people to hear it. i'm like, what? >> yeah. >> i'm like, is this thing going to make me smarter or something? i mean, the best way to explain it is just different frequencies. you know, we have high frequencies, lower frequencies. it seems like it's very hot up there. >> yeah. >> so we have a lot of -- [ sounds ] and for me, it aepsit's crazy. you sit there, and you're constantly looking for sounds to put to mood music. and the open space, the mood. we're constantly looking for mood. and we captured mood from jupiter. >> yeah. it's a -- it's arresting for me to hear you describe it. as an artist, it must be really, really moving to be one of the

first to like synchronize that and make it -- >> yeah, it's incredible. it's incredible because -- and it makes me -- it opens up a part of my brain, and it almost makes me like compute math in a different way. it's almost like, you know, i can -- i can fully understand now how important -- you know, being born in haiti, you go outside, you're in the hut, you hear nature. i always said, this was my first experience to music, i would hear roofrster, and then i woul hear the sound of the wind, the thunder, the lightning. to get a recording from up there to bring here was mind-boggling. >> yeah. tell me about the lyrics to "borrowed time." >> man, in the video, if you look at the lyrics, i always say, you know, music to me is not just supposed to be music. i learned that from bono and back marley. you're like, how can i keep this sexy, but i got to be saying something.

when you look at the sound, we have different policies, right. >> equality -- >> yeah. a quality, fluidity. a lot of different -- to question us as humanity and to ask ourselves this question because we are on borrowed time. >> yeah. >> and sometimes we're moving so fast, we don't take time out to really like pause and breathe and be like, hold up, what are we really fighting for. you know what i mean? everywhere we travel, we still find so much love. >> yeah. >> even though the other day, i had love. but when i was leaving portugal, it was crazy. this woman was like -- literally kept me there for a minute because i was coming back home. she was like, "your president, you go back to your president." my man was making a joke, right. he had a green card. we both have green cards and was

coming back. we were like, we're going to america, do you want to come with us? she was like, i don't want to go with -- your president. as a matter of fact, you stands here. ask me another security question. it was like -- i started feeling like people are starting -- i ain't the president. why you so bitter with me? >> you're making jokes about trump, and they take him seriously. >> yeah, yeah. but i was just like -- >> seriously. >> i wasn't even making a joke. i was like, yo, do you want to come back with us to america. she was like, your president, she's the one who got on me. i was just -- >> that started with -- i know you were being playful with her. it's a subtle reminder of how we can get chin checked every now and then. >> yeah. i mean -- >> about the fact that we think we're all that and then some. she's like, go back to your america. with trump? no, i'll stay here in portugal. >> she was like, no, i'll stay here in lisbon. >> i get it. >> it was incredible. it was a great tech convention. >> since you mentioned that

experience with that particular woman, let me jump to what i mentioned a moment ago. we all read about it. and i'm glad it ended the way it did in your case. glad you weren't trayvon martin or michael brown or the list goes on and on and on or philando castile. this run-in you had here earlier with the cops, what happened? >> yeah, i mean really, i'm just glad that, you know, there's time when was social media with go right. >> yeah. >> i was just like, yo, go up -- if you see the instagram video, i'm like, yo, yo, the lapd -- no one said anything to me. later, i found out it was the sheriff's department. it was clearly a case of mistaken identity right from the position to where i was sitting at in the car. i had my bandana on. the haitian bandana's two colors. it's the red and the blue. and i think the side they saw was more cotoward the red. and automatically, i was a man who just -- you know, robbed the gas station, right.

so now they're going to come at me. and you know, i get out the car. you know it's crazy because for me as a person who has made different moves in my life, you know, at times i know people watching me m. i know my phone's tapped at times because i know who i am, and i know what i stand for. my first reaction was like, oh, man, that's a mercenary group. they sent to kill me. like this ain't my first time. so automatically, my first instinct was to run because it's crazy. you see guns drawn, no identification. there's no one who's identifying saying who they are. and what was crazy was the fear factor. in my family, i had police, i have people that serve the military, i have -- we all know when something's wrong, and we admit when it's wrong.

even my cousin -- it was just the idea of me telling you, my ama -- my name's wyclef jean. i'm staying right there. the cops, all you have to do is send one person in to check the i.d. the fear factor because the racial profile is he black, he got a red bandana, we've got our guy. you know, it was definitely -- like i said, the cool thing about it was i'm here. and in the report, what was crazy was they said that i went for my waistband. i didn't go for my waistband, right. but keep in mind this becomes so natural, and it just becomes news. what would it like if you heard, okay, clef got shot. you would have fought to say, no, let's get the tapes. once again, it would have been another dragging situation where it's the citizen, you know, versus the institution.

and the institution protects more the right of that side of it versus the people right now. that's all. >> no doubt about that. >> yeah. >> most artists, certainly many artists who find themselves in a situation like that or anything remotely like that, it ends up at some point becoming art. >> uh-huh. >> did you do anything with that artistically? >> yeah, yeah. what i did was i wait months later -- >> right. >> because at the end of the day, like you in a world, man, where it's like with social media, anybody could say anything. i didn't want to be like, man, he actually had the police arrest him. and those are his police friends, and he did a stunt. then there's a new song coming out this week. a song called -- no. we waited, you know what i mean. we deferring we did. eventually like you said, pain turns to art. >> sure. >> i did a record. it's called california. and you know what i mean?

in california, i just break the whole story down. and these records are important because when we listen to people like bob marley, "i shot the sheriff," or the eagles, "hotel californi california," artists speaks when it happens. i wrote the song and held it. it's out there now. >> yeah. it's hard to believe it's been 20 years. does it feel that way for you? >> no. you know what i mean, it's like final flies by so quick. i remember the carnival like it was yesterday. >> yeah, yeah. >> here i am, i'm already closing a trilogy with the third one. i remember "gone to november" like saying, yo, i want bob dylan in my video. dude was like, man, you ain't going to get bob dylan -- bob dylan don't even show up for his own video. what makes you think -- and so keep in mind those -- like what's crazy is those days, the security factor was a little different. i shot the whole video at l.a.x. >> yeah, yeah. >> can you imagine now trying to shut down the airport to shoot a

music video? it ain't going to happen like that. >> you might get arrested there, too. >> man. >> and maybe more quickly at l.a.x. >> quick. >> since you went there, there's certain songs that you have do not -- true of many great artists -- where the hook gets in your head, and the minute you hear reference to it, your mind -- your lips start to move. when you say gone to the -- i'll be gone to november -- >> i'll be gone -- >> to november. it's like -- like the hook just gets in your head, man. and it -- you can't let it go. >> i love that. i think probably the -- one of the coolest things of the year for me was texts back and forth can carlos santana. and i remember -- back and forth with carlos santana. and i remember him saying we don't do music, we do vibration. and the vibration constantly translates over and over again. and i got the

d.j. khaled, and he's like, i got this idea, you remember the "maria, maria," guy an idea, i'm going to flip. it's crazy to see the wyclef sample and khalid and rihanna. it's amazing, i'll be like holy crap, i was a fujee and -- fugee and roberta flack. you have to make sure that you do it better. the crazy thing is when khalid did the record, i'm paying attention, boom, boom, boom. the minute i text him, i was like, i don't, this is fire. -was li he was like, yo, you know this is the record i was waiting for. when you're about to flip it -- even if with me, it's real. it's almost like you enter that zone. it's incredible. the beatles or the rolling

stones, imagine, otis reading back and forth, all that is incredible. >> when you arrive at a miss pln your career where you put down somethinger serious enough that people want -- something serious enough that people want to put it down, how does it feel? >> it gives me a rebirth, you don't ever want to be the old man in the room talking about the war and what you did in the war. the kid will be like, man, that was 1960 -- the incredible thing is i said we all always need that new drive. so for me in 2017, when you got kids like young thug, naming records, wyclef jean, and a 20-year-old kid who don't know who wyclef is, i'm at the airport the other day, he like, yo, mom, this is wyclef. this dude so famous, there's a whole song about him. so when you got the new generation like you said, theyen brace this kind of -- they embrace this kind of music.

when i go into the studio with them, their albums is the scannescore, "the carnival." it makes me understand we got to keep writing music. right now's legacy. we put our projects, and we're in the best era to put music out. i tell people that. you're in the era where there's no rules. like tomorrow if i said, man, let's put a jazz album out. i don't have to wait no more. it's exciting times. >> yep. the other thing to me, if an artist takes the challenge, if they take the challenge, it seems to me an exciting time to be a songwriter and artist because there's so much content, so much to talk about. one of the things you've always done -- i want to borrow a phrase from you earlier -- you've always made -- i'm going to tweak it a bit, you've always made protests sexy. we saw it in "borrowed time." you found a way to make protests sexy. in this moment, there's no shortage of stuff to talk about if you have any sort of social consciousness. >> definitely. and i would say it's our job to spit it back, right.

this generation is more mixed tape driven, right. i gave you all the album "the carnival." next week, i got the mix tape coming out. the mix tape is called "inspired." and now i'm taking this generation music that has inspired me for 2017, and now i'm flipping it and giving the kids the information. now when i take kennedrick lama dna, i'm flipping it, dna, black history, boom, boom, boom. i feel like -- to give information to the kids, it's tricky, right. >> it is. >> you can't talk about it. if you want to inspire them, you have to be like them, right. >> yeah. >> are you them, and t they are like you. yeah. >> what we're doing with the mixed tape is we're feeding information like you said -- there's so much to talk about. and i'm hoping what this does is it just inspires them to talk about more. >> yeah. how much -- at this point in your career, how much

freestyling do you still do? and i raise that because our mutual friend, harry belafonte, is 90. recall at his 80th birthday party in new york -- you and i were there. you came out of nowhere as a surprise to him. and that room was just -- everybody who was anybody was there. you come from behind the curtain and freestyled the most beautiful song to mr. b. everybody was like, how did he come out -- you were weaving in people's names who were in the audience, things that happened that day. it was a beautiful freestyle. at this point, you still freestyle that way sometimes? >> freestyle is a natural gift. >> right. >> it's an improvisation form of really jazz. that never goes with you. like james brown when he was dancing when he was little, you know, saying, yo, look, you know, put something in the shoebox, i'm going to flip it. that's me. i was in the hood like, yo, pick a word. and i would go, pick another word, pick another word.

that gift is something we'll never forget. i always say, you know, 16 bars a day, you know, it keeps the rappers away. you know -- >> you do this literally every day? >> you have to have 16 bars a day. >> wow. >> guess what, it's so healthy, though. >> yeah. >> it's really shakespearean jousting. so the cool thing -- in our culture we have battle rap, right. and with this shakespearean jousting, it's so healthy. to take your mind -- what if martin luther stayed in the room, never set foot in the balcony? what if they had a bulletproof car instead of a drop top for kennedy? malcolm x. did a speech, what if i sat amongst the congregation when the boys screamed get your hands out of your pocket, a five-shot assassination. tavis, what if i put blank in marvin gaye's father's gun? what if you knew the truth before sending your kids -- i

told you, the boys don't care about iraq. they care about the oil. peep this -- what if i could go back in time, i would erase 9/11, go to the bahamas, and put aaliyah's luggage in a 747 -- wordsmith. 15 bars a day. you got to do 24 -- >> i can do the pushups. >> it's all mental. but you read a lot. >> but it is a gift. i don't think that if i practiced 16 bars a day that i could ever do that. >> i'm telling you, you would be surprised. you are a wordsmith. you read, you write books. it's the same thing. it's just the practice. >> if you say so. let me go back to "carnival iii." we talked about one traffic specifically. we'll have you play out in a few minutes with another track from this on your guitar that you brought with. >> yeah. >> tell me and tell the audience what they're going to hear musically when they pick up this new one. >> i mean, "the fall and rise,"

we have emily sandata and another song "carry on." what makes this different from any other album i did? basically when the "carnival" one came out, you had kids like super mario who's producing for drake, young thug, there's another group of kids we have called the wavy boys. wavy gang. another group called the knocks. these kids were 12 years old when "the carnival" came out. these are the producers of today. one of them, mario, he did the wyclef jean record. this album, i call it the nephews and uncles. clef shows up with the hardware, guitar shows up. they show one the laptop, the beat machine, now what happens when you take 1997 sonics and you fuse it with 2017? so for me like when i listen to like "thriller," i'm a big, big, you know, quincy jones is one of my favorites of awfll time.

and what q. was able to do was understand sonics and fuse it and keep it fresh. this is -- everyone that was looking for the score of "the carnival," we got you on this. we're leading you back to the water. you might be waiting for another score. but meanwhile, you might want to go back to water and discover what the kids are discovering now which is the "carnival 3." >> why don't you grab a member of the i go car and play us out. and we were talking about nasa and how they provided sounds of jupiter. you mentioned q., one of the great stories of might have life auto -- of my life. some years ago q. and i were together at 3:00, 4:00 in the morning with a live presentation on the radio. the snauastronauts in space wak to a different song every day. this was "fly me to the moon," sinatra. q. came to my studio. 3:00, 4:00, we were connected

with nasa and the space shuttle and wake up to "fly me to the moon." a few minutes after they woke up, i was moderating between q. and the astronauts in space -- talk about a moment. waking up in outer space playing "fly me to the moon." his arrangement is a coklcold p. and speaking of a cold piece, "carnival iii" is the new song from wyicallye ical wyclef jean to "what happens to love" and play us out as i say thank you for coming on the program. thanks to you. thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith. and here comes wyclef with "what happens to love." ♪ tavis, pick a word pick a word ♪ ♪ love ♪ what happened to love nothing happened to love love is still here from up above ♪ ♪ l-o-v-e-love gonna be here

until eternity ♪ ♪ pick a word >> joy. ♪ joy, you know what's funny about joy, you can't have joy without pain you can't have sun without rain ♪ ♪ speak of portugal i'm coming back from spain when it come to freestyle there ain't no refrain let's get into it ♪ ♪ what happened to love girl is it as good as it always was ♪ ♪ what happened to love girl is it good ♪ ♪ looky looky here celebrate tonight like new year's ♪ ♪ let's cheer because love's in the air jealous girls looking at you are the hate stare ♪ ♪ with my boogie bang bang in the middle of the night when we do the wild thing ♪ ♪ hot fire ring-a-ling-a-ling ♪ what happened to love yeah ♪

♪ girl is it as good as it always was what happened to love ♪ ♪ girl is it good as it always was ♪ [ applause ] >> for more information on today's show, "the tavis smiley at pbs.org. join me next time for a conversation with novelist salmon rushdie. that's next time. we'll see you then.

♪ >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more, pb

>> good evening from los angeles. i'm tavis smiley. tonight a trip down memory lane for those nostalgic about the way we were. renown eed lyricists alan and marilyn bergman are on the show. coming up right now.